January 5, 1977 Beamer Road Nears Completion

Beamer Road Nears Completion

For all the residents who have traveled Beamer road between the subdivisions of Kirkwood and Sagemont, while cursing the half completed, heavily traveled road, relief may be in sight.

Nancy Gehman of County Commissioner Tom Bass's office instigated a study of traffic on that section of road in an effort to determine what, if any, improvements should be made.

During a 24 hour period last September the county clocked over 4300 vehicles traveling from Kirkwood to Sagemont.

County engineer that this was enough traffic to initiate immediate action towards improving driving conditions on the road. His crew installed two stop signs, one on either side of Beamer Road at Hall Road. The purpose for these stop signs was to slow down traffic on Beamer, particularly where numerous area minibikers have been riding on the side of the road, dangerously close to Beamer and to help allow traffic from Hall Road to enter onto Beamer.

Doss' office then contacted City of Houston to suggest a "joint project" to finish the four-lane divided section which connects the two major subdivisions in the area. 

Members of both the county and city offices involved in working with the proposed protect appear to agree that something needs to be done . on that section of road, which had been the scene of numerous accidents including one death in the past year and a half.

At the time of that death, a year ago August, Jerry King, director of traddic and transportation for the city of Houston made improvements to help increase the driving safety of the dangerous section. Those improvements included the installation of lighting, restriping, and the setting up of additional barricades. King admitted though that the ideal solution would be completion of the road.

The problem in getting the road completed has been that both the county and the city own sections of the land. According to King, the city own approximately 1200 feet while 800 feet are on property within the jurisdiction of the county. The section fronting Kirkwood South was annexed by the city for a short time, and then deannexed as sufficient improvements were not completed.

Both King and Gehman are optimistic about the completing of the road but if any of the local civic organization would like to speed up this work, a letter to these two department heads would certainly help things along.

Other traffic areas which are of concern to local residents include the intersections of Sabo Road and Fuqua and Sabo Road and South Belt. 

Residents are finding it increasingly difficult to get in and out of the area during peak traffic times due to the heavy congestion at these two points which are the only means of entering the area from the freeway.

King has talked of the possibility of building a turning lane at each of these locations to speed up traffic flow but it will take requests from local citizens and civic groups to get the city to act. 

To date, it appears that local residents have been content with complaining to one another and not taking the time to complain to those empowered to eliminate the situation.